Continental Divide Trail – Day 45 (6 miles)

I don’t know if it was walking so late into the night but I could not get to sleep last night. It was close to 3.30am before I finally drifted off, and I awoke at 5.30am as usual.
But I was excited to catch up with Furball (@na_diagram) and Squarepants, both of which I hiked with on the PCT last year and SP again on the AzT earlier this year. They were both passing through the area and decided to stop in town and visit to Leadville (or maybe me?) for the day.

I walked the couple of hours to the highway and then hitched into town. I got a message of SP that they would arrive around noon, so I headed to a cafe to eat, recharge my phone and gain a large supply of coffee to keep me awake while I waited.

I spent the time researching my upcoming Wind River High Route, as I am slightly concerned about heading in there with a lot of snow, before I headed to the library to write yesterday’s journal.

Catching up with them kind of blows out my 12 day Colorado plan, but an unexpected catch up with friends is always worth it. We spent the day eating and just hanging out while we caught up on what everyone has been up to.

We also visited @Melanzana_leadville. I see why they are so popular. When I could not find the fleece that I wanted, the guy serving quite literally took his off and gave it to me. That is some serious customer service. Now I can throw out my old synthetic that has absolutely no insulation left, to more warmth!

Eventually they had to leave and I got to relax in the hostel hot tub well into the night with a few other hikers.

I was pretty tired with so little sleep last night and might have fallen asleep before my head even hit the pillow.